WINDHOEK – The newly elected Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP) Director of Elections Nic Kruger says he is ready for and looks forward to the new challenge to deliver a much improved election campaign by the RDP this year.
Kruger replaced Mike Kavekotora who was elected as the secretary general of the RDP at a party convention held last year December. Speaking to New Era on Monday, Kruger said the fairly young RDP has learnt a lot since the last elections in 2009/2010.
“I believe the very trying election court case, which also caused a lot of financial stress, has in the end strengthened the party and its members,” he said .
Kruger said RDP members are a lot more determined to see that this year’s elections would be free and fair and that the true will of the people be seen in the election results.
“Our own internal democratic processes during the last quarter of 2013 also caused challenges to the party and its leaders and members,” he said, adding that the RDP was however all set and ready.
“The first challenge for all political parties in Namibia in 2014 will be the general registration of voters [that started yesterday]. Unfortunately, the awareness campaign which the ECN is supposed to conduct has seemingly not got off the ground yet,” he opined. He also attacked criticism by “the so-called political analysts of opposition parties not doing their bit in the awareness campaign”.
“Is this another misdirected smokescreen to hide the incapability of the government and its agencies to properly execute their duties. Who has been entrusted with hundreds of millions of taxpayers’ money to conduct the registration process? Surely not the opposition parties,” he stressed.
Kruger said it was unfortunate that the registration of voters is being done under the old election laws, adding that the laws were described by Judge President Petrus Damaseb as “a jungle”.
“We know the Law Reform Commission has done, from what is known, a reasonably good job in re-writing the election laws. We also know the first draft presented to the president’s office was a single law. After a long delay, the Law Reform Commission was instructed to split it into four laws. Why?
The general public and stakeholders in elections have never been informed about the reasons for this,” he said. The RDP has called on President Pohamba to urgently instruct all parties involved to bring the new election laws before parliament as soon as possible, said Kruger.
“The voters and all other stakeholders have the right to know what is awaiting them in this year’s elections,” he said. Kruger said delivering the best and the most free and fair elections in the political history of Africa would be “a nice legacy for our president to take into retirement”.
Kruger said the RDP Commission of Elections would soon start with preparations for the party’s electoral college, where the party’s 72 candidates for the National Assembly election would be decided.
By Kuzeeko Tjitemisa